


Death Rattle

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Series: Suilad Aran Thranduil [6]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: I am so sorry, i don't know what happened, thranduil is my baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 16:16:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1191666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a calmness that descends upon you when you know your end is near, a calmness formed from exhaustion and lack of will than from any actual relief. It is not the absence of chaos, but rather an apathy to it. People rush around you, they talk to you, they hold you, they press down on wounds your hands have given up. Those people, they do not feel the calm, but you do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death Rattle

**Author's Note:**

> Overall. I don't know what happened in this fic, only that I had Thranduil feels I needed to get rid of when I wrote this. :) I hope you enjoy. :P

It is a calmness that descends upon you when you know your end is near, a calmness formed from exhaustion and lack of will than from any actual relief. It is not the absence of chaos, but rather an apathy to it. People rush around you, they talk to you, they hold you, they press down on wounds your hands have given up. Those people, they do not feel the calm, but you do. _I_ do. I feel the calm that lays like a thick layer over me, keeping me from connecting with _them_ those people rushing around me. So calm I can’t hear a word they are saying, so calm I can’t feel their hands upon me. So calm I can’t feel the pain that should be rippling through my body. So calm. I do not care for the blood I watch seeping through their fingers, my blood. My blood that is so much warmer than how I feel right now. I do not get to die in battle, they do not even see fit to give me that.

No, my death comes in the form of a blade through my gut, and poison in my wine. They weren’t taking any chances it would seem. They made one mistake, and I made two in turn. I could taste the poison the moment the first sip of wine hit my tongue. That was their mistake. So accustomed to Dorwinion, I can taste even the slightest difference in flavor. My first mistake was assuming a sip of the poison wasn’t enough to do damage. My second mistake was assuming poison was to be their only attempt. No, my fate was sealed the moment I took my seat. The weight in the chair a trigger of some sort for a blade to cut through my chair and into my back, it was a clean cut right through me. I did not notice until the poison hit and stupidly I stood from my chair and that was it, the blade torn from my body.

Legolas noticed the blood first. Legolas noticed the blade first. Precious, precious Legolas, my beautiful, little leaf. He screamed, it was garbled to my ears but so painful to hear. Las Nin was the one to catch me when I fell. He was the one who screamed for help. He was the one whose hands pressed down on the wound I could not move my hands to touch. _It’s too late,_ I tried to tell him, _please, my child, leave me. You should not watch your father die._ But the words would not form in my mouth. I could not speak. That blasted poison. So Legolas stayed, and he stays now. Holding me, stroking my hair, my face, waiting for me to fade away.

“Las Nin, Las Nin, please.” The words are a whisper on my breath, it will take more than poison to keep me silent. “Las Nin, please.” _I do not want you to watch me die._ But those words still will not pass from my lips.

“Hush, Adar, hush, you will be alright.” He tells me, but he does not feel what I do. He does not hear what I do. But he knows, he does, he does, he watched _her_ fade away, he knows how this goes.

“Las Nin.” A death rattle, Eru I have always hated that noise. Ada had a death rattle. Nana had one too. Runs in the family I suppose. Oh, Adar, I have failed you. I failed you, I failed the Kingdom, I failed her, and I’m failing him. My precious Greenleaf. My precious, precious Greenleaf.

“It’s alright, Adar, it’s alright. I’m here. See? I’m here.” His face is all I can see through the shroud of darkness that has taken my vision captive. He takes my hand and he presses my palm against his cheek, and somehow I can feel his warmth. But where his hand touches mine, and where it brushes against his face, he leaves a smear of blood. My blood. Just another reminder that I will be gone soon

“Goheno nin, Las Nin.” Expelled on a failing breath, they are my last words. I know.

“Adar, shh, stay with me, Adar. You’ll be alright. You’ll be alright. Please.” There it is, the watery sound of his words. There they are, the tears he tried so hard to hold back. _I’m so proud of you. You’ll be a good king. I’m sorry._ I want to tell him, but I cannot, I cannot, there are no more words. I do not have the breath for them. It was not meant to be this way. It was never meant to be this way. _I’m sorry._ The darkness descends.

_Forgive me.._

**Author's Note:**

> I know that canonically elves are typically immune to most poisons as their healing factor is so strong it even reads alcohol as a poison and takes action to nullify effects of the alcohol immediately upon consumption. Hence why Legolas is for the most part unaffected during his drinking game with Gimli. However, there will be some poisons the elven body cannot overcome for a short period of time. And in this case, the poison is one that causes a spasm from its victim the moment it finally kicks in -when Thranduil stood from his chair- followed by a partial paralysis of the limbs and an inability to speak. Given time, the poison would slowly kill its victim by infecting the brain and slowly shutting everything down, the person would die without being able to alert anyone to their condition, trusting the victim to be alone at the time of poisoning of course. But in this case, though administered before the stabbing, the poison was the fail safe to ensure Thranduil's demise, should the blade fail, as his healers would think his symptoms caused by his stab wound and not from the poison slowly eating him away from the inside. :) The calmness he felt was entirely from accepting his fate than from the poison.  
> 


End file.
